Random Questions About Adepts
IF YOU SWITCH SOULS WITH AN ADEPT, WILL YOU THEN GET HIS POWERS IN HIS OWN BODY? No, the powers or abilities an Adept has comes from the Imprint of God's Attribute on the Adept's soul. Therefore, wherever the soul goes, so does the Adept's powers. CAN IMMORTAL ADEPTS HAVE BABIES? With the exception of the Destroyers, all Adepts are assumed capable of producing children. Even the Immortals. Any children of the Adepts are born normal, human children. Destroyers cannot have kids because, in turning themselves into living manifestations of destruction itself, they are now sterile. Some Adepts, like the Lepers, Outcasts and Abominations may or may not be able to produce children depending on their personal features. But that is a case by case kind of thing. I'M NEW TO ROLE-PLAYING, WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO TELL A STORY? More than anything you need a hook, a reason to listen to the story. With action movies it's all about the action and seeing who wins at the end. With sports movies it's all about seeing the team you're rooting for win. With mystery stories, you want to see who's behind the crime. As long as you have something in you're story that would make you want to hear the ending, than you've got a story others will enjoy. DO ALL ADEPTS REACH THEIR MAXIMUM DEGREES? Actually no, most Adepts will not attain the top Degree within their Orders within their life times. Adepts are soldiers in God's army and like all active armies they have a mortality rate that prevents many of them from getting the chance to reach full level. Of course there are other factors as well. Degrees represent how much an individual Adept has managed to attune themselves to the particular Attribute of God from which their Order springs. Rising up in the Degrees of an Order therefore means a personal change into a living manifestation of said Attribute. But not all Adepts accomplish such a feat. Doing so requires real dedication and determination, and no small amount of spiritual exercise. Most Adepts who live out their lives as members of an Order will reach medium Degrees or slightly higher. The truly dedicated will attain the maximum Degrees. This is often the driving goal for many Nazirites, to dedicate themselves solely to reaching max Degree. Of course, no few Perpetuals have accomplished either. HOW LONG AFTER A PERSON DIES BEFORE THEY CAN'T BE RESURRECTED EASILY? As long as the body is warm a simple Resurrection will raise them back from the dead. Some Resurrectionists have developed specific powers to keep the body warm until they can dedicate the time for a quick Resurrection. DO OTHER ADEPTS WORK AT THE ARK OR DON'T THEY? That is kept intentionally vague. Storytellers who decide to use the Ark may or may not include other Adepts besides Creators within the Ark itself due to their own preferences. HOW SHOULD I PORTRAY ADEPTS USING THEIR POWERS? It usually varies from Adept to Adept. The exact manifestation will be slightly different to match the Adept's own personality and traits. So don't be too concerned about the details of supernatural manifestation. THE ORDER OF THE SERPENT IS CALLED THE ORDER OF SERPENTS IN ONE SPOT AND THE ORDER OF THE SERPENT IN ANOTHER. WHICH ONE IS CORRECT? They all are. The Orders of Adepts are not man made organizations, and with a few exceptions they have all existed for as long as anyone can remember. While the exactly name the Order has gone by as shifted from one era to another, the basic nature and recruitment of the Order remains the same. Storytellers and players alike are encouraged to use whatever method for naming they prefer. WHAT ARE THE POPULATIONS OF THE ORDERS? This can vary from story to story, or game to game, but some Orders are clearly larger and more influential than others. The largest Orders on record are the Meta Orders, whose Aspects of God are both Natural (which means anyone can find them regardless of Tribe). After the Meta Orders are the Ecclesiastical Orders, those Orders who are dependent on Tribes for new recruits. These Orders tend to be culturally conservative and dominate the religious landscape of modern society. The Militant Orders have decent recruitment numbers, and usually come up next. However, because they often live the life of a soldier, they also have higher mortality rates. This is especially true for the Nazirites within the Orders, but even the Perpetuals, who often find themselves facing agents of the Darkness in person, possess a higher rate of casualty. The Scholastic Orders normally make up an equal slice of the Adept pie as the Militant Orders do. The Ruling Orders come next, they represent the leadership both of the world and the Adepts in particular. They can command both attention and military power owing to the positions they keep, but due to their innate fear of destabilizing their power base, the Ruling Orders mostly concern themselves with keeping the Status Quo (minus the occasional power grab). The Order of the Fallen probably equals the largest of the Ecclesiastical Orders, in fact they are probably second in population only to either of the Meta Orders. They, along with the other Heretical Orders, represent the fringe elements of the Adept community. And finally come the Minor Orders, those smaller Orders whose membership is highly specialized and whose Aspect is unlikely to be encountered by many. This list is rough, especially when one considers that some of these Order designations have overlap (the Destroyers are both a Meta Order as well as one of the Order Militants). This list provides a general idea for the population makeup of the Adept community in the modern world and player/writer discretion is required. DO ADEPTS ASK EACH OTHER FOR THEIR DEGREES? No, it is considered rude among most Orders to just bluntly ask someone what their Degree in their own Order is. This is a general rule and some circumstances, or ways of asking the question, may not be considered rude (or as rude). WHY ARE THERE EVIL ADEPTS? AREN'T ALL ADEPTS FROM GOD? King Solomon was from God, he did wrong. King David was guilty of murder, Samson used his God-given powers for wrong too. Power is power, and God grants to use mere mortals for reasons besides whether we deserve it or not. The Adepts have been empowered by God, they are expected to use that but that doesn't mean they always will. That's the great caveat of free-will. WHY ARE THEY CALLED THE 'ORDER OF...' The practice of calling Adepts by their nature with the prefix 'Order of' dates back to the late Medieval Period when religious orders were prevelant in the world. The Adepts saw their Order as their spiritual family, like a naturally occurring religious order, and so started naming themselves the Order of Anarchs, Order of Lepers, Order of Seneschals, etc.